


We All Matter

by ImaKaraTabiHe



Series: Speedster Family [22]
Category: Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Discrimination, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Hurt/Comfort, Social Injustice, close minded to open minded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 23:03:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8227810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaKaraTabiHe/pseuds/ImaKaraTabiHe
Summary: While on riding on a city bus, Wally cannot turn a blind eye to the social injustice he finds.





	

It started on the city bus.

“I can't believe some people out there actually care about those freaks,” a man with trench coat was saying to his two friends. One wore a black leather jacket and the other had no jacket, letting his black and flamed t-shirt remain visible.

“Fuck if I know, Al,” the flame t-shirt man told trench coat.

Leather jacket shook his head, “Can you believe they're going to throw that firefighter in jail for killing that freak woman last week?”

The other two shook their heads in disbelief and open disgust. Wally sat on the bus, hands clenched on his thighs and stomach rolling. He knew who they were talking about.

Last week on Wednesday at 4:45am a woman had been discovered, beaten to death, cut up. Someone had cut her several times, while she was still alive, deep enough that one could see the different layers of muscle. They hadn't spared her face and had ripped her clothes to shreds. Next to her was written: _DIE META-FREAKS!_

Her name was Millie Holder, aged 40 with a husband and a teenage son that both loved her. Millie worked as a nurse at one of the local hospitals and was very kind to everyone. She was also a meta-human. She made things bloom. Flowers always looked their best after they'd been cared for by her. She had a green thumb that made things grow.

The culprit had been caught and processed by the police. He was a man whose named Wally hadn't bothered to remember. Trash was meant to be thrown out after all, but Wally did remember that he was a firefighter who was seriously fucked up somewhere in the head to do such a thing to a kind woman such as Millie.

Millie had taken care of him after an accident on the job had landed him in the hospital. The story went that one of the firefighter's buddies had sent him flowers that had arrived in poor condition, and Millie had it taken it upon herself to restore them to their former glory. It was a thoughtful gesture, but sadly one that, once had come to light, was lost on the very man she had helped back into health.

He had caught her after her shift of very long, hard hours and had dragged her to a deserted area where he'd proceeded to lay into her until she died. The man hadn't looked like he felt any sort of guilt as he was taken to jail and locked away for life. It was disgusting.

Wally couldn't help but feel guilty, even though he knew that crimes still happened despite Central being the home of Flash and Kid Flash.Superheroes couldn't protect everyone – it was a hard lesson to learn and even harder to live with.

The men continued to rave on and on about how Meta-humans shouldn't be allowed to hold a job let alone _live_. Wally sat there, fear and anger mixing as he clenched his hands. He could tell that other people were feeling just as disturbed as he was, b ut no one wanted to start anything on a bus where everyone was confined in the small space.

And then they said something that made it impossible to feign ignorance, to be in control of his emotions. “Flash is cool though. Every one of them freaks needs to learn a lesson from him.”

“So you'll be accept a meta-human as long as he's protecting your dumb asses.”

Eyes whirled to land on Wally, who was a little stunned he'd spoken out, but he didn't regret it one bit. “What?”

Wally cleared his throat and faced them head on. “I said, Flash is a meta-human too and you seem to be okay with him. So you're only cool with meta-humans as long as their superheroes?”

The men glared at Wally. “What are you talkin' 'bout, brat?”

Wally stood, despite the motion of the bus. He'd gotten quite used to standing on planes, jets.. crumbling buildings.. “I'm saying that you're a bunch of stupid hypocrites!” he exploded. “Flash is a meta-human. Kid Flash is a meta-human. And yeah! There are other meta-humans out there! But not everyone wants to be a superhero and that's fine! No one should force them to use their abilities if they don't want to.”

One of the men scoffed, “Bullshit. They have those powers so they should use them for the sake of every other _normal_ normal person out there.”

Biting the inside of his mouth to keep remotely calm, he ground out, “Like fuck!” He stared each of them straight in the eye, an icy collectedness taking hold. Spotting an engine oil stain, he glared at flamed t-shirt man, and asked, “Tell me, do you think you're good at fixing engines?”

The man looked puzzled, torn between his outrage at Wally and thepure out-of-nowhere-ness of his question. “Of course I'm good.”

“So if I forced you to fix every broken engine, regardless of whether you wanted to or not, whether you got paid or not, would you like it?”

The man narrowed his eyes, “Hell no.”

“Really? But it's your special talent. I can't fix engines, but you can. Since you can, why don't you fix all the goddamn broken engines there is?” Wally questioned.

“Because that's insane and I sure as fuck don't have to do whatever anyone else wants me to do!” the man cried out, angry.

Wally's lips curled in a grin, “And how is that any different from forcing someone with abilities to use them for your sake?”

“We're _normal!”_ the man with the leather jacket protested.

“'Normal'?” Wally echoed. “Who decides what's 'normal'? You? Me?” Wally whirled to look at an older man with graying hair. “What's 'normal' to you, sir?”

The man, who had actually been silently glaring at the three loudmouths, looked up at Wally with determination and replied, “There's no such thing as normal. We're all free to be whoever we damn well please.” He then sent a scathing glare at the three men. “I fought in the war and I can tell you right now that normal is a figment of your own fucking idealsand that's no reason nor excuse to push your beliefs onto anyone else.”

Wally shoulders relaxed for a moment, visibly warmed by the man's outburst and clear dislike of the three anti-meta fanatics. “I agree with you fully.”

Turning back to the men, he took a breath and coldly bit out, “You have no right to force your beliefs on others. You can't even put yourself in their shoes. You don't want to do all the work for no pay and no benefits. Well neither do they. You have people you love? Well so do they. _You_ like pizz a—well I bet plenty of meta-humans like pizza too. Oh, you're worried about dating? I can damn well assure you that meta-humans are too.”

“You're afraid of them? Well buddy, let me tell you something, they're afraid of you too. Yes, they have abilities, but they also have families. They have lives. They have fears. You and them? Not so different.” Wally's voice softened, but didn't lose the odd sort of power and conviction that had edged its way into his voice. “It doesn't matter what makes us different, because underneath it all, we're all human. We're the same.”

No one had noticed the bus had stopped somewhere along the way, people watching the scene with silent, still awe. The three men were staring at Wally with wide eyes, a look of shame spreading on their cheeks.

Slowly, clapping began that startled people into joining until it was ringing in the confined space of the city bus. “Amen!” “Fucking tell it like it is!” “Way to go, kid!” “You tell 'em!”

His phone vibrated in his pocket, making him jump. He flipped it open to see a message from his uncle: _What's the hold up, kid? Got a robbery on Eighth at Perry's.”_

Wally swore under his breath and pocketed his phone. “I've gotta go.” He turned to jog to the door before pausing at the veteran and reaching out his hand. “Thank you,” he murmured to the man as they shook hands. **“** From all of us,” he whispered softly, watching as recognition lit up in the man's eyes. The man gave him a big smile and nodded. “Sometimes there are folk just need to be set right.”

He gave the man a last smile, thendarted off the bus and out of sight before tapping into his speed, changing and hightailing it over to the scene of the robbery. He skidded to a halt in front of an icy cop car and shook his head with fond exasperation as the tension from before faded away. “You couldn't have waited five more minutes, Cold?”

Captain Cold shot him a look from beside the Rogues. “Why? In the middle of something?”

Kid Flash shook his head, rolling his shoulders. “Meh. Just some idiots causing trouble.” Trickster perked up, “We're causing trouble!” Kid Flash coughed on a laugh as Captain Cold gave Trickster an annoyed glare. “We're not idiots,” the Rogues' leader pointedly reminded them.

“Oh,” Trickster paused, tilting his head to the side before giving Cold confused look. “Are you sure?”

Kid Flash couldn't hold back his laughter that time. He couldn't tell if James was doing it on purpose or being genuine. It was hard to tell sometimes. The Trickster could be tricky when he wanted to.

Deciding to ignore the implications, Cold looked Kid Flash over. “Everything okay?”

Thinking back to the conversation… to Millie… it made him want to cringe and curl up somewhere safe, somewhere where such discrimination didn't reach. There were such judgmental people out there that Wally was afraid sometimes. Race, religion, sexuality, powers, preferences, health.. the world was a big place that sometimes seemed all too painful.

'But,' he silently reminded himself, 'there are people out there who accept others, who understand that differences aren't wrong, but natural.' Wally thought back to that veteran on the bus, to the people who'd cheered at his actions and words. 'And the Rogues.' Kid Flash smiled at them brightly, “Yup!  Just happy to know there are people like you out there.”

The Rogues looked confused, exchanging curious glances with one another. “Whatever you say, Kid,” Heatwave gruffly spoke. “Can we get back to fighting now?”

Kid Flash grinned and flashed up in front of them, stealing Heatwave's heat gun. “Your wish is my pleasure.” Heatwave cursed and the fighting began.

  


  


“ _ **In other news, an attack on an assumed Meta-human was stopped today by a few men who saw the boy being dragged off by two assailants, now in custody. The men arrived just in time and were able to prevent a horrible assault by anti-meta fanatics.”**_

Wally frowned as he sat up on the couch of his uncle's house, eyes on the TV. It switched from the reporter to the three “heroes”. “Holy shit.” His eyes were wide as he watched Trench Coat, Flame Shirt, and Leather Jacket come on screen.

“Language, Wally,” his uncle called from the kitchen. Wally ignored him and watched as Flame Shirt spoke.

“ _ **We aren't heroes. Not really. We used to be like those two meta bashers, actually. Hated them, called them freaks and didn't feel the need to treat them with respect.”**_

Wally watched as the man looked straight into the camera as he continued,  _**“Someone set us straight. He told us that we couldn't support the Flash without accepting that he was a meta too. It was hypocritical to want to force them to do what we want, to act and be the way we want them to. We bleed.”** _ The camera panned out to see the young meta who'd been attacked be loaded up into an ambulance with a cut that had bloodied his cheek.  **_“So do they. We all have worries and hopes, whether we're meta-human or not. Having abilities is no reason to treat them like they're anything less than we are – human.”_ **

The reporter continued talking about meta-human discrimination, but all Wally could think on was how honest they looked, how ruffled their clothes were and the blood and bruises that he could see on their faces that they'd gotten _fighting to protect a meta-human._ Wally blinked tears away, smiling faintly as he leaned back into the couch.

Maybe the world wasn't so bad off after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Thursday/Friday morning, everyone!  
> Hope everyone is well.
> 
> Special thanks to one of my lovely friends who beta read this for me. This was a bit difficult for me to write, but I hope you enjoyed it. Leave comments if you can and I hope you have a good weekend.  
> Thanks!
> 
> Tumblr: tabihe


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